Angoon in the Spring

I left Sitka for my third visit to Angoon this week. As you can see the weather is beautiful--this place looks incredible this time of the year. My allergies were in full-force. On the flight here we flew over some valleys I had never seen before in the interior of Baranof.

I'd love to hike to this valley. Anyone up for the challenge?

We were flying pretty close to the mountains on this trip!

Incredibly, there were clear tracks in the snow this high up. I don't see any in this pic though.

Our plane getting ready to leave again. 

St. John the Baptist Church; a Russian Orthodox Church built in 1928-29. 

Inside St. John the Baptist.  

View from the church cemetery.

This is Richard, a medical student who came with me. Here he's picking up a box of vaccines we brought from Sitka.

This is a Rufous Hummingbird...I'm proud of this shot. He has the tiniest legs.

A beaver.

This is where I stay when in Angoon--the Favorite Bay Bed & Breakfast.  My room has the lights on.

A couple of pics of reflections off of Favorite Bay. This is right outside my window.

The seaplane dock at dusk. 

 On our way back to Sitka we picked up a passenger at Baranof Warm Springs, which is on the East side of Baranof Island--opposite side from Sitka. Here it is tucked away in a little bay.

An view of the rapids at Warm Springs.

I'm hoping to eventually do the 16-mile Baranof Cross-Island Trail. It starts at Medvejie Lake and ends at Warm Springs. This is my first time seeing the trail terminus--exciting!  

I love this place!

Blue Lake Dam

Almost home...view of Japonski Island (9 o'clock) and part of Sitka (at 3 o'clock).

This was a great trip. I saw mostly kids at the clinic. My panel in Sitka is heavy on the geriatrics so I was glad I got to balance it out with some folks on the other end of the spectrum. Next time I come I want to bring a fishing pole. Time to start stalking the "Sitka for Sale" facebook page for some deals.
  

Camp Lake, take 2

Ever since I heard about the Baranof Cross-Island Trail--a 16-mile route that crosses the island West to East --I've been kind of obsessed with it. What makes it a challenge is that 1) most of the time it isn't a trail so you have to follow little flags that other hikers have tied to trees and it's very easy to get lost; 2) sometimes when there is a trail--this is hard to explain--at times you are really left wondering "is this a human trail or did something else leave this?"; 3) lots of bushwacking; and 4) it's isolated, inaccessible by car, and few people pass through--I have yet to see another person while exploring the route. The flip-side is that it's beautiful, quiet, completely undeveloped, and totally Southeast Alaska.

My ultimate goal is to complete the entire Cross-Island Trail. I'll have to do that with a guide though as the route crosses 2 icefields which apparently are difficult, technical, and easy to get stuck on. My short-term goal is to complete the first part of the trail--from Medvejie Lake to Camp Lake which is located in an alpine meadow up in the mountains. One of the things my Philly friend Alex taught me on our backpacking trips was how to be self-reliant and how important it is to plan and to be prepared so that your trip doesn't end up being a disaster.

The trek starts at this hatchery. A hatchery is where they raise salmon eggs then release them into the wild when they are 1-2 years old. Not the same as farmed salmon.

Here, in pictures, are my second failed attempt at reaching Camp Lake. It was a hard trek and I underestimated how long this first "leg" would take me. Next time I'm going to try to start hiking earlier and I'm going to bring my tent (extra weight but it buys me time so I'm not rushing), bum a SPOT off someone so I can let my wife know I'm ok (or not ok), bring more food, and bring stuff to start a fire.

Skiff at Medvejie Lake near its outlet stream. 

Me borrowing the skiff out for a little ride. 

Medvejie's beautiful aquamarine water; you can see clear to the bottom.

This arrow carved into a log is the only sign I've seen so far. 

Relaxing on a little sliver of beach on the North side of the lake.

Baranof''s terrain is very rugged. The mountains are not the highest (Peak 5390 is as tall as they get) but they are very steep. I'm surprised I've never seen rock climbers in Sitka but I'm sure Alex would love to try some of these out. 

View of Medvejie Lake after gaining some elevation. 

After a long time scrambling up boulders you reach a sort of bowl. Here I'm looking back from where I just hiked on the right side of this picture. I'm pooped by this point.

This is where I called it quits. In this pic my back is against the other side of this bowl where I'm hiking along huge boulders. It was still a long way to Camp Lake and if I kept on going there was no way I'd make it back home by night. And no phone service to let Mari know I was going to be late.

Live to fight another day...

Death Valley National Park/Mojave Desert, California

Got some much needed r & r recently in sunny California. We spent 2 days camping in Death Valley. Very stark contrast from the high precipitation we see in Sitka. As with most of the large national parks, the scale is difficult to catch in pictures.

Mesquite sand dunes

Selfie

Badwater basin, 282 feet below sea level. The next 7 images were shot here.

Badwater basin salt flats

NaCl + some stuff I probably shouldn't be ingesting.

En route to Racetrack you find this.

There's got to be a story to explain why all the teakettles but I haven't looked it up yet.

Some parts of the park can only be reached by Jeep. We rented one for a day of off-the-paved-road exploring.

Racetrack is a dry lake bed...

...where you can see the paths left by sailing stones.

Trying to get the right angle.

It's cool to see life in such an arid environment.

The next 2 photos I shot from a 73-foot rock outcrop called the Grandstand. 

I love this picture of my wife with this almost perfect backdrop.
You can barely make out to her right where some smart-ass wrote NOAA
in the sand (you're not supposed to step on or write on the sand
when it's wet because it can stay that way for years). 

The tent.

Iconic Zabriskie Point.